Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The Jews were a special people entrusted with God’s law. Israel was a nation created by God to be His witness to the nations of the world. Moses wrote this truth concerning the great wisdom God’s law that exalts the nation to give glory to God.
This chapter is to be read and understood as a whole. The Apostle Paul is putting forth precious truths concerning the state of the redeemed man. He tells us firstly that the moral law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, is not abrogated when one becomes a Christian. It is furthest from the truth that he can now live outside the boundaries of God’s law, forsake holiness, and live lawlessly, having been freed from the bondage of sin and dead to the stranglehold of the law. He can now choose not to sin (Rom. 7:6).
We must continue to struggle against sin in our lives. For our encouragement, Scripture gave to us in the book of Job, the earliest recorded writing of Scripture such a man of God – Job 1:1 “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed (hate) evil.” The word “perfect” does not mean sinless perfection but holiness. He was a man who walked with God, who made right with God by that close communion with God. He made right with God and he interceded for his children daily. God Himself pronounced him “perfect.”
As the old saying goes, “Holiness is not inability to sin, but ability not to sin.” The freedom that we have as born-again Christians is within the boundaries of God’s Word. The Word of God sets the boundary for our protection. Just like our parents set the curfew hours that we are not to come home after a certain time. When we obey, we are protected. When we disobey, we expose ourselves to the dangers of this wicked world, waiting to devour our very souls.
There is much that God has laid upon our hands to do to serve Him. He tells us that we serve Him by serving the people God brings into our lives. What good we do in Jesus’ name for a brethren, God will reward! For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. (Hebrews 6:10) Amen.
The Apostle Paul is urging the Christians in Rome to choose to live holy lives. Sin causes shame. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit, they were guilt-ridden. They realized that they were naked. Sewed fig leaves to cover their shame yet it did not soothe their conscience. This was God’s warning to them before they fell into sin – Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The Apostle Paul is reminding the Christians at Rome for the fourth time in verse 20 of their privilege in Christ. He wanted to reiterate the glorious truth concerning their salvation. He contrasted the life of sin before conversion and the life of righteousness therafter again and again. He tells them there is a stark difference. God through Christ has done a marvellous work of grace in their lives freeing them from the oppression and stranglehold of sin in their lives.He uses the word “uncleanness” and the phrase “the infirmity of the flesh” to describe the heinous nature of sin.
The Apostle Paul by the inspiration of God instructs us concerning who we really are. He reminded the Christian of the past before his conversion. That he is in total bondage to sin living from “iniquity unto iniquity”. The word “iniquity” literally means “a bending”, the outworking of sin in crooked lifestyle. But now, in Christ, he has the freedom and the power within him to live a life pleasing to God. God used the Apostle Paul to pen the Scriptures to instruct us in the ways of God. These instructions of righteousness are profitable for practice, teaching us what is good and what is evil.
The Apostle Paul speaks with a sense of relief for the great grace of God upon the Christians in Rome. The ravages of sin in their lives were broken by the power of the gospel. It is truly a matter worthy of thanksgiving.
He must have observed the blessed transformation in the lives of these Christians. When they were willing to follow the instructions of Scripture, they found the strength to live holy lives – being freed from sin, they became servants of righteousness.
The Christian’s testimony before God and men is that we were servants of sin but now no longer. Scripture gave to us in the book of Job, the earliest recorded writing of Scripture such a man of God – Job 1:1 “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed (hate) evil.” The word “perfect” does not mean sinless perfection but holiness. He was a man who walked with God, who made right with God by that close communion with God. He made right with God and he interceded for his children daily. God Himself pronounced him “perfect.”